Workers concerned with ink printers (endorsers) used to imprint flimsy documents (e.g., checks) on-the-fly, as they are advanced, transported quickly along a track past the print station are aware that jams are all too frequent. Yet such documents must be very precisely positioned as they are swept past the print head. Also, such systems often are characterized by "paper dust" that must be prevented from collecting on the wet print nozzles.
An object hereof is to address the foregoing. A related object is to provide a sheet transport with pneumatic guidance, especially around a sheet-imprint station. Another object is to do so for one or more jet-print endorser stations.
The following describes a related document transport mechanism utilizing an "air impingement" system to pneumatically advance documents along a track and to accomplish a number of related things: e.g., keep dust off an ink jet endorser system, to control the gap between the endorser and a passing document, to provide document position control at a gap in the wall of the transport track, to prevent the freshly-endorsed document from smearing ink onto the transport wall, and to accelerate the drying of document print ink--especially in a document processing machine such as a Unisys NDP-575, -1000 (Networked Document Processor), a DP500, (by Unisys Corp., Blue Bell, Pa.) or other like machine. Thus, an object hereof is to alleviate (at least some of) the foregoing problems and to provide associated advantages. A more particular object is to use a novel air-impingement system to keep dust off ink jet nozzles. A related object is to use such to help control document positioning relative to the ink jet.
A further object is to help dry so-imprinted ink images on a passing document, and keep the document from smearing its ink-print against a nearby track wall.